Lining your lips is far more than just a step in your makeup routine — it is an essential part of your glam to make your lips look perfectly defined, and to achieve that desired “pouty look.” Over time, lip lining has evolved from a basic 10-second swipe into an art form, to enhance your lips to fit every style and skin tone. And now, there’s a lip liner hack going viral on TikTok to make perfecting your pout even easier.
At its core, lip liner serves as a way to define your lips and enhance your natural colors, but the benefits go far beyond just shaping. The correct color and application of lip liner can add dimension, improve lipstick longevity, and prevent the dreaded lipstick bleed.
The downside to mastering your lip routine before you leave to go out is the fact that it is the quickest to fade. Throughout the night, it’s easy to reapply a gloss or lipstick to keep the color strong, but many find it difficult to manage the lip lining throughout the night without searching for a mirror every time.
Reapplying lip liner is difficult because it is hard to perfectly enhance the angles of your lips when you’re in the middle of doing something — especially if there’s no mirror accessible. Luckily, creators have taken to TikTok to share a lip hack on how to reapply lip liner on the go. It’s been widely shared in the past, but Kate Steinberg refreshed everyone’s memory when she dropped the hack on the app last week. Not only does Steinberg seamlessly apply her lip liner to enhance her lip, but she also does this in a bumpy car — everyone’s least-favorite location to reapply makeup.
After Steinberg’s TikTok went viral, her comments were flooded with positive reviews. Many others went to TikTok to share their successful versions of this lip liner hack in moving cars or at home — including Peloton instructor Callie Gullickson.Â
How to do the lip liner hack
Steinberg classified this look in her caption as a “trust the process.” She started off by pressing her lips together. She then placed the lip liner on one corner of her mouth and drew a line across to the other corner of her mouth. Without lifting the pencil, she then draws another line back across, to return to her original starting point. After that, she grabs her gloss and fills in the rest of her lips. She glosses the bottom of her lips, and then presses her lips together to evenly apply the gloss.
Does the lip Liner hack work?
It looks like it depends. One TikToker shared a video of how it “somewhat worked” for her. She did the trend, but then had a few stray lines on her lips, which she simply cleaned up afterward and achieved the same outcome. Others, like Steinberg and Gullickson, have achieved great results with the hack. It seems like it works for many lip types. Those with thinner lips are able to do this trend anywhere and achieve the same pouty look that those with fuller lips naturally have. It’s the perfect hack for reapplying your lip routine on the go throughout the day.